Jahnsdorf - Simply take off.
Jahnsdorf was founded around the year 1170 as a village of forest hooves. Over the centuries, the village, which today also includes the districts of Leukersdorf, Seifersdorf and Pfaffenhain, was a rural area. It was not until the 19th century that the first impetus for industrialisation came from Chemnitz. The population grew. Today, around 5,500 people live here.
The beautiful landscape at the beginning of the Ore Mountains has remained despite the changes. Land and labour, people and nature are in harmony, albeit not without breaks in the biographies. Following the political and economic transformation after 1989, people feel at home here again and have found a new balance. Companies thrive in Jahnsdorf, both medium-sized metalworking firms such as Püschmann Maschinenbau and markSTAHL Präzisionsstahlrohre, as well as larger international companies such as ABUS, a well-known brand for mechanical security technology.
Airport Chemnitz: Take off? Take off!
The Jahnsdorf airfield, officially known as the Chemnitz/Jahnsdorf airfield, is a symbol of the upward swing. Private and business travellers use the opportunity to get to the Chemnitz economic region quickly. With sightseeing flights, balloon trips and flying schools, the airfield is also open to a wider audience.
Taking off is very real here: on the one hand in the sense of flying, on the other in the figurative sense. Leaving familiar terrain to try something new, being different in a positive sense, but always landing on safe ground again. Knowing what you can do and where you belong. This mentality is crucial for creating a future worth living in rural areas.
The mindset in Jahnsdorf is clearly orientated: Daring to try new things, thinking ahead. Here, two farming families organise a "barn transfer" from Bavaria to Saxony in order to preserve valuable cultural assets. Or a cosmopolitan restaurateur uses culinary theatre to tell the story of the Ore Mountains as a melting pot of cultures.
Art at the railway station: sitting together on social benches
Jeppe Hein created the "Modified social Bench for Venice" in Venice in 2019. It borrows its basic shape from the ubiquitous park or garden benches. However, its design is modified to varying degrees, the artist writes on his website, in order to make sitting a conscious physical process. The benches thus question the spatial divisions in social situations and scrutinise the space that people consider necessary between themselves and others.
Through their modifications, the benches would transform their surroundings into places of social activity and promote dialogue between users and passers-by, Hein continued. People would be invited to play an active role by using the benches not only as places to sit, but to expand the possibilities for social and communicative practice.
Take a seat: What do we have to say to each other?
This idea of "social benches" can be realised wherever many people come together, for example at train stations. Anyone can take a seat here alongside anyone and everyone. This raises the question: What do we have to say to each other? An open little experiment to get people to communicate. Jeppe Hein also created a "Social Bench" for Jahnsdorf railway station as part of the "Art at the Station" series and the already established art stations along the Purple Path.
Making the future: A typical mentality in the Ore Mountains
Innovation and a sense of tradition, openness and immigration have always ensured the survival of the Erzgebirge mining region. All of this bears witness to the many transformation processes that reach far back into history and in some cases continue to this day. The region has always been on the move. People came and went with the economic ups and downs, reinvented themselves culturally and further developed crafts and technology. This is still the case today.
Transfer of barns from Bavaria to Saxony: Ziegs farm market
Imagine the following scene: An old hay barn takes off from Bernbeuren in Bavaria and lands in Jahnsdorf in the Ore Mountains. What was going on there? Georg and Maria Huber no longer had any use for the barn and wanted to make space on their farm. But simply sawing up and disposing of the wood, which had so much family history attached to it? That was out of the question.
Diana and Peter Ziegs from Jahnsdorf, who have been running a small farm with a farm market and regional direct sales here since 1991, had the space and a new idea. The old hay barn from Bavaria could be rebuilt here in Saxony, completely refurbished and used as a cultural barn. No sooner said than done. Done. At the annual courtyard festival in May, guests can see for themselves how far the project has progressed.
The Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 supported the project. The artist Anastasia Koroshilova created a photo documentation of the "Stadeltransfer from Bernbeuren to Jahnsdorf" as an art project.
The cosmopolitan restaurateur: Claudia Lappöhr
The Leukersdorf sports pub is a real institution in Jahnsdorf. A pub on the village football pitch? Really now? Wait a minute: just as you shouldn't judge people by their appearance, you can't judge a restaurant by its name either. Words can be deceptive on first reading. But it's worth taking a look inside the sports restaurant.
"We are wholefood junkies," says chef and owner Claudia Lappöhr about her cuisine. That puts all the clichés about currywurst and chips to bed. Healthy, seasonal dishes with ingredients from the region are on the menu at her restaurant. No flavour enhancers and no industrial products, instead tradition-conscious freshness based on family recipes. Here, only high-quality ingredients are put in the pan and transformed into delicious dishes by creative hands.
Miriquidi Melting Pot: food theatre for the cultural melting pot of the Ore Mountains
Transformation is a topic that is very close to Claudia Lappöhr's heart. With her "Miriquidi Melting Pot", she has created a food theatre. Her culinary theatre pieces tell the story of the region since the Middle Ages. Without Europe, without immigration, without innovation, this history would be incomprehensible, says the restaurateur. Since the "Great Mining Battle" in 1168, people have repeatedly come to the Ore Mountains to make their fortune in mining or later in industry.
Over the centuries, the Miriquidi, the dark forest, has become the melting pot of the Ore Mountains. People brought skills and ideas, crafts and culture, customs and food with them. Everything merged together to create something uniquely new. Precisely what we now call the mining region and proudly bears the title "UNESCO World Heritage Site".
